/ world today news/ Scientists have come close to reproducing photosynthesis, a mechanism invented by nature to obtain energy, the most important chemical process for life on Earth. In this direction, research is also being actively conducted in Russia.
A complex scheme
Plants, cyanobacteria, and archaea use the sun’s energy to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Then from CO2 and water they synthesize organic substances. Oxygen is produced as a by-product – all the O2 in the Earth’s atmosphere is created this way.
Experts are carefully studying this process. One of the tasks is to build power plants that mimic the operation of the natural system. But it is quite difficult to reproduce photosynthesis, and science is not yet able to harness solar energy so effectively.
In higher plants and cyanobacteria, a quantum of light is absorbed by the pigment chlorophyll, from whose molecule an electron is detached and moves along the so-called electron transport chain. A complex chain is set in motion that ultimately creates energy to fix CO2.
In order to create efficient energy devices, it is necessary that the electron, “torn off” as a result of the interaction of a photon and chlorophyll, is not lost in the depths of the “transport system”, but immediately reaches the receiver of the energy device. And recently, an international team of scientists, led by experts from the University of Cambridge, said they are closer to that goal.
Mastered the system
The discovery was made by accident. Chemist Jenny Zhang and her colleagues wanted to understand how molecules known as quinones “steal” the electrons released from chlorophyll when exposed to light. The scientists studied the culture of cyanobacteria using ultrafast spectroscopy, which allows tracking the flow of energy in living photosynthetic cells on a femtosecond scale – ten to fifteenths of a second.
Unexpectedly, it turned out that the protein scaffold, where the initial chemical reactions of photosynthesis take place, has “holes”. Through them, electrons leave, and quinones receive them. According to the scientists, such leakage helps the plants to protect themselves from damage if the radiation is too intense for the system to “grind”.
“Many scientists have tried to extract electrons at an earlier stage of photosynthesis. But until now this was thought to be impossible because the energy is too deeply embedded in the protein framework,” says Zhang. “The fact that we were able to ‘steal’ electrons at an early stage is amazing.”
The team of scientists hopes that in the future, with the help of such a “hack” of photosynthesis, it is possible to accelerate the creation of renewable energy sources. But this requires more research.
The head of the laboratory for controlled photobiosynthesis of the Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Suleiman Allahverdiev, considers the work a significant achievement.
“However, it is important to repeat the results using not only cyanobacteria, but also other systems. At the same time, it is necessary to evaluate the quantum yield of this very simple model, which simulates the initial stage of electron transfer, and its robustness under changing external conditions,” noted the Russian scientist.
„Both processes are free”
Allahverdiev’s laboratory is actively studying the possibility of using photosynthesis-based systems in energy. One of the areas of work is the preparation of a scientific basis for the creation of hydrogen production devices.
“The energy for this process will be supplied by the sun, and the electrons and protons will be supplied by photosynthetic splitting of water during oxygen photosynthesis. Both processes are free, they have been naturally optimized for millions of years,” explains the specialist.
In addition, Russian scientists are looking for new methods of using solar energy that will minimize the use of rare and heavy metals in various photocatalysis processes. This, among other things, will help to solve the problem of oversaturation of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases.
According to Allahverdiyev, it is difficult to predict the time of the appearance of power plants based on photosynthesis, but scientists are creating prerequisites for solving the problem.
“The efficient use of solar energy and water, the creation of promising systems for artificial photosynthesis, and the development of a productive catalyst for obtaining ecologically clean molecular hydrogen are areas of research on the success of which the future of humanity depends,” emphasizes Allahverdiev.
According to him, despite the difficulties in creating such systems, efforts to develop them should continue.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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